A strong attendance of over 150 people attended the MIBI’s Annual Conference which was held in the Morrison Hotel Dublin on Wednesday 2nd October.
During the course of the conference a wide variety of subjects of keen interest to the MIBI and their delegates were covered, providing entertaining and informative analysis of several topical issues. This included everything from the handling of the Green Card issue, the regulation of e-scooters, the state of play on the Periodic Payment Orders as well as details on GDPR. All the proceedings were expertly marshalled by the conference MC, Aisling Connolly of the MIBI (pic. below).
The conference was opened by MIBI Chairman John Farrell (pic. below left), who set the tone for the interesting and insightful conference that followed. MIBI Chief Executive David Fitzgerald (pic. below right) then provided an informative and lively breakdown of all the MIBI’s performance since the last conference, covering everything from the efforts made to help claimants and the level of claims received by the MIBI in 2018. David also spoke about the unprecedented Brexit planning response from the MIBI which saw 1 million Green Cards issued ahead of the original Brexit deadline in March, before turning to the MIBI’s successful efforts to reach an agreement with the UK Department of Transport that has seen the need for Green Cards overturned should there still be a ‘no deal’ Brexit. A detailed piece on his presentation will be published in the coming days.
Greet Floré, Secretary General of the Council of Bureaux (pic. below) then discussed the protection of cross-border road traffic victims and the associated challenges facing the Council of Bureaux. Her presentation also touched on the issues arising from Brexit, this time from the wider international perspective. Interestingly, Brexit is perhaps the highest profile of several challenging geographical situations currently facing the Council of Bureaux, with situations in the Caucasus (between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia), in Kosovo and Algeria also posing issues. Ms. Floré also covered the European Commission’s proposal to amend the Motor Insurance Directive.
From major geo-political issues to more localised practical concerns, the next presentation focused on the regulation and insurance of e-scooters. Lisa Joyce (pic. 1 below) and Deirdre Munnelly (pic. 2 below), Partners with Mason, Hayes and Curran took the conference through the realpolitik facing e-scooters, with their use effectively banned in Ireland because they need to be tax and insured if used, but those provisions are currently not available in this country.
After a short break for tea and coffee, the conference resumed with a detailed examination of the Periodic Payment Orders. Philip Fagan, Senior Clinical Claims Manager for the State Claims Agency (pic. below) explored the environment around PPOs as well as listing some of the key challenges around their implementation in this country.
The MIBI’s Claims Recovery Specialist, Dermot Cogan and Fraud Manager, Ken McKinley then spoke about the impressive results the MIBI has produced in their activities to recover funds and to crack down on suspicious claims. We will be publishing more detailed pieces on these presentations over the next couple of weeks.
Finally the conference was concluded with a fascinating examination of the GDPR landscape. Kate Colleary, Director with Pembroke Privacy (pic. above) broke down the current data protection climate, outlining some of the current activities being pursued by the Data Protection Commission and the key steps that Irish organisations need to take if they are to avoid breaches in the directive.
Further images from the conference can be viewed below.